The Great American Ballpark was pretty cool. (Oops.. there's a freebie stadium). It's set up like a poor man's Pittsburgh ballpark (you only get one freebie). Except instead of the bright yellow Roberto Clemente Bridge linking it to downtown Pittsburgh, you get a normal suspension bridge linking it to Kentucky. Like I said - it's a poor man's stadium. I have heard really good things about it since it was built in 2003, but much of the concourse seems very plain. The big feature of the park are two riverboat smokestacks in centerfield that shoot fireworks after a Reds home run (which we unfortunately didn't get to see). However, they built them much too short. The scoreboard is very expansive, but lacks the kind of LED screens that other stadiums have. The stadium is very round, however, unlike any other stadium I can think of visiting. When the crowd started doing the wave, you could tell there was great potential for having a crazy loud stadium as a result of the design. In the end, I would rank it above Cleveland and Philly, but below Baltimore. Here's a photo from our seats.
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The last team I had difficulty thinking of was the Atlanta Braves, for some reason. I was able to peg that it was an NL team that had been around for a while and was not one that I have seen live. The three teams I couldn't remember were Arizona Diamondbacks (I had no idea it was Chase Field), Oakland Athletics (again, McAfee Coliseum?!), and the Washington Nationals (I knew it used to be RFK, but why did I not at least guess NATIONAL park??).
I thought 27 out of 30 was damn impressive. I even remembered that the Giants switched from Pacific Bell to AT&T and the Indians went from Jacob's to Progressive Field this year.
I got all 30 teams in 33.648 seconds. Grace timed me =).
I didn't do so hot on stadium naming...I missed Oakland, Cleveland, San Francisco and Arizona. I remembered Washington only because I hear it's name all the time down here, but otherwise I think I'd miss it. And thank you Cincinnati's name as well...wouldn't have gotten it.
I like stadiums with a view. This one looks like it has a great one. I like the Griffey counter too; A nice tribute. Jay Bruce made a nice catch last night, yeah?
I would like to outlaw camo uniforms, though. I know, I know, it's a great tribute. But the whole uniform? I mean, they don't have special all-pink uniforms for breast cancer awareness day. Throwbacks are one thing, but a completely new uniform design as a tribute? Eh, not a fan really. Wear ribbons on the jersey, mark your bats, your helmets, etc.
See, that's the thing - it does have a good view - of a dirty river and KENTUCKY. Comparatively, Jacob's, PNC, and Camden all have much better views. I think if they rotated the stadium 90 degrees, it would have been a little better.
Jay Bruce did have the #1 web gem last night - it was great. And they had to cart off Elijah Dukes. We left after Cinci went ahead in the 8th because it had been a long day and we wanted to beat the traffic. I found out Washington scored in the 9th, but Cinci had a walk-off single in the 9th. I still feel we saw the end of the game - they just repeated that in the 9th.
They had a Griffey camo uni giveaway last night - we're going to sell ours on ebay. And you're wrong - some minor league teams have worn pink unis for breast cancer awareness day.
http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060214&content_id=41569&vkey=pr_milb&fext=.jsp
Minor league teams do all sorts of crazy things. They don't count. I'm talking about the majors. I don't like a full-on jersey tribute.
It's cool they gave out a uniform though! I'm curious to see how much you'll get from it on ebay.
Well, the view looks good in your picture =).
Baltimore is having a cool promotion today...it's called "We Win, You Win". Anybody who buys a ticket to today's game gets a free ticket to any game of their choice (same ticket value seat) as long as the Orioles win. I haven't really heard of an MLB team doing that.
The Orioles are also having a countdown to the 50,000,000 fan. If you're the 50,000,000, you get $50,000 and a bunch of swag. They are about 413,000 away...I'm figuring around Saturday, August 9th against the Rangers. I want to go but we will be on vacation. Ah well, $50,000, easy come easy go.
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